1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an animal excretions disposal material in order to treat and dispose of the excretory products of pets and animals and a manufacturing method therefore.
2. Description of the Related Art
The animal excretions disposal materials such as cat litters have been traditionally used for treating and disposing excretory products of pets and animals. These animal excretions disposal materials are the man-made granules mostly made of sand, bentonite, zeolite, and/or pulp.
Among them, those mineral based disposal materials made of bentonite or zeolite are non-combustible, and therefore, cause certain inconveniences to ordinary households when disposing because they are only collectible on Non-combustible Garbage Collection Days.
On the other hand, those organic disposal materials made of pulp or pulp sludge as the main material thereof would cost expensive, thus priced higher, in comparison with those mineral based disposal materials. Furthermore, they have to be actually disposed as raw garbage in most cases because they tend to float on water surface and thus less flushable due to their very light specific gravity and sometimes cause clogging of sewer pipe in spite of their claiming to be flushable.
In other aspect, those disposal materials as above referred can treat and dispose animal excretions by absorbing by themselves, however, it is impossible for the users to dispose occasionally the part of them which have been moistened by absorbing animal excretions because those animal excretions osmose into and spread inside the layers of animal excretions disposal material used. Thus, the users are compelled to use those animal excretions disposal materials until they have been entirely used for absorbing animal excretions.
Accordingly, those animal excretions disposal materials tend to stay longer in the litter box from the point of their first absorption of animal excretions until their disposition, and thus, to start smelling bad and being unsanitary.
In order to solve these problems, it was noticed that used green tea leaves, which used to be disposed as industrial wastes, have a property of antifungal and antibacterial function, and therefore, could be used for the material to be mixed in animal excretions disposal materials. Thus, a manufacturing method thereof has been proposed. (Reference: Patent Publication # Hei-6-7051)
As having been pointed out in the proposal for a patent as above referred, it is definitely necessary for the production of such animal excretions disposal materials to find out a supply source of such used green tea leaves in large quantity. Otherwise, a manufacturing method thereof doesn't fit to factory production.
However, in order to obtain such used green tea leaves in large quantity, it was only possible way to obtain those used leaves from a bottling factory that should have been generated as the residue in large quantity after extraction of green tea for drinking.
In this case, it becomes necessary to purchase the used green tea leaves, as residue, in big lot from a factory bottling green tea for drinking, and keep them in storage at a certain place in the manufacturing factory of animal excretions disposal materials.
The FIG. 2 is an illustration to show the flow of processes after having received such used green tea leaves from a bottling factory. (See: FIG. 2)
As shown in the FIG. 2, the used green tea leaves received are dried at Process-11, coarsely milled at Process-12, and then, mixed together with other materials at Process-1 where the respective necessary quantities, mixing ratio, etc. are fixed. The mixture thus obtained is put into a high speed mixer for mixing at Process-2, granulated by a granulator at Process-3, sized by a /sizing machine at Process-4 and dried by a drier at Process-5, thus the final product is obtained.
In general, the used green tea leaves received are highly perishable, if left untouched for long time, due to their high moisture content as much as 80%, especially in summer season, therefore, it is necessary for a factory to equip with an expensive dryer with a large drying capacity as much as 1.0 ton per hour.
Furthermore, an expensive milling machine is needed to pulverize the dried used green tea leaves into an appropriate size as well.
Thus, it requires a good amount of fund to construct such a factory, and therefore, it has been considered difficult to manufacture such animal excretions disposal materials by modern factory system even though the manufacturing method has been regarded as an useful way of recycling industrial wastes contributing to environmental preservation.